Posted on September 22, 2014 at 10:13 am by David "Snackbar" Edmundson

Not only do we know that the Deadpool movie finally happening, but 20th Century Fox also gave it a February 12th, 2016 release date, too. Why now all of sudden? Perhaps it’s got something to do with the fact that the filmmakers apparently figured out a way to make Deadpool a PG-13 film.

Even though the character may deserve an R-rated movie, going the PG-13 route still seemed inevitable. The quality of the content should always be top priority, but moviemaking is still a business and when you’ve got a business to run, dishing out a product that cuts off a significant amount of the target audience isn’t the smartest approach.

In the latest episode of Meet the Movie Press over at Schmoes Know, Mark Reilly revealed:

“I heard from the director that they finally figured out the script and it was right before this was announced … that they figured out, and you guys are all gonna hate this, they figured out how to make it PG-13 and therefore not lose its soul – that’s a quote – of the script so that they can make it.”

It’s not surprising, but it is especially disappointing after Simon Kinberg teased his own personal preference to take a chance and run with an R-Rating back in April:

“Yeah, it makes sense to me. Genuinely it’s early phases, early days, but if you’re gonna do a Deadpool movie, I think you’ve gotta do a hard-R, darker movie and he is the perfect character to do it with.”

Many would probably agree, but when you look at the R-rated superhero movie numbers, it’s pretty obvious why Fox would rather go in another direction. Watchmen made $185.3 million worldwide, but Warner Bros. likely hoped for far more and the same goes for films like Kick-Ass, Dredd and Constantine, just to name a few.